San Francisco’s Chariot shuttle service to shut down

1of30A Chariot shuttle van drives near a commuter stop on Christie Avenue in Emeryville, Calif. on Tuesday, June 26, 2018. A grant from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission is subsidizing commuter runs for UCSF employees to provide transportation between East Bay locations and the Mission Bay campus.Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle

2of30Chariot is shutting down shuttle service because it can’t make money under its current business plan.Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle 2018

3of30A Chariot commuter-van is seen driving down the street, San Francisco, California, on Monday, November 28, 2016.Photo: Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle 2016

4of30Matthew Derouchey waits for riders in his Chariot shuttle van near a stop on Christie Avenue in Emeryville, Calif. on Tuesday, June 26, 2018. A grant from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission is subsidizing commuter runs for UCSF employees to provide transportation between East Bay locations and the Mission Bay campus.Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle

5of30Matthew Derouchey waits for riders in his Chariot shuttle van near a stop on Christie Avenue in Emeryville, Calif. on Tuesday, June 26, 2018. A grant from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission is subsidizing commuter runs for UCSF employees to provide transportation between East Bay locations and the Mission Bay campus.Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

6of30Unspoken rules of Lyft/UberPhoto: Spencer Platt, Getty Images

7of30Don't make your driver wait for you. Be outside on the curb when he/she arrives. If you know you won't be ready, don't request the ride until you're sure you are.Photo: Spencer Platt, Getty Images

8of30If you live on a one-way street or are getting picked up from one, offer to cross the street.Photo: Amy Osborne / Special to The Chronicle 2017

9of30Make sure the car you're getting into is actually a Lyft/Uber. Check the license plate and the make/model. The driver should say your name when you get into the car.Photo: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS, AFP/Getty Images

10of30Nobody is obligated to talk to his/her Lyft/Uber driver, but a polite hello is always encouraged.Photo: CHRISTIE HEMM KLOK, STR

11of30Surprisingly, a lot of people do not do this. Like, why would you not?Photo: ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images

12of30Some people like talking, others don't. That being said, if you don't want to talk, just indicate that in some way, rather than leaving a low rating.Photo: Santiago Mejia, The Chronicle

13of30Your fellow Liners or Poolers might not want to talk to you, and that's okay. Not everyone is as social as you. As one of our staff members said, "I don't take Lyft Line to be social; I do it to save money!"Photo: John Carl D'Annibale

14of30As for where to sit, this is also a matter of preference. People choose to sit in the back for a variety of reasons, but for one, it signals to the driver that you may not want to talk. Take that as you will.Photo: Amy Osborne / Special to The Chronicle 2017

15of30Greet other passengers in a pool or line. Just saying hi is nice. We should be nice.Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle

16of30Don't squeeze a third into a Lyft Line or Uber Pool. It's two, maximum.Photo: NurPhoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images

17of30Don't try to change your destination while already en route, especially if you're in a Pool or Line.Photo: Gabrielle Lurie, The Chronicle

18of30Cash won't work either. Don't try to bribe your driver with cash or other items to reroute you, drive faster, or let you squeeze three more people into the car.Photo: Smith Collection, Getty Images

19of30Don't take out your anger at the situation — traffic, tardiness or otherwise — on your Lyft/Uber driver. It's inconsiderate and not their fault; they're just trying to get by, too.Photo: Paul Sakuma, STF

20of30Drivers, please don't stop for food/gas during a ride, if you can help it.Photo: Liz Moughon / The Chronicle

21of30Just...no. No Juuling or smoking in the Uber/Lyft car.Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

22of30If this is your current state, maybe don't take an Uber/Lyft ride without someone you trust present. Remember, riders pay any cleaning fees.Photo: skynesher/Getty Images

23of30Try not to eat in the Uber/Lyft car. Some drivers might be okay with something benign, like a small bag of almonds, but it's probably not a good idea to bring in a soggy box of spaghetti Bolognese.Photo: Svetlana Davis / EyeEm/Getty Images/EyeEm

24of30Indeed, beers are nice to drink. But leave them in the fridge at home. Or unopened in your bag. Definitely don't bring an open container into your Uber/Lyft car.Photo: GRANT HINDSLEY, SEATTLEPI.COM

25of30Make an effort to be accurate with your location. If you know exactly where you need to be, make sure the pinpoint is correct on the app. If not, give your driver clear verbal instructions. This helps a lot.Photo: Bob Owen /San Antonio Express-News

26of30In the Uber app, riders are given the option to choose the music. But if that's not available, be considerate of the aux cord. It's generally thought of as a no-no to ask your driver for the aux cord.Photo: Genna Martin / Seattlepi.com

27of30It is good to care of your nails. But please don't clip — or paint — them in the Uber/Lyft ride. And definitely do not do anything to your toenails, either. That would just be awful.Photo: Gabrielle Lurie, The Chronicle

28of30Try to keep phone conversations, especially in a Line/Pool to a minimum. Definitely don't have them on speakerphone.Photo: Leah Millis, The Chronicle

29of30Don't ask the driver for his/her number. And drivers, please return the favor.Photo: Tim Hussin, Special to The Chronicle

30of30Don't be so engrossed in texting that you miss your driver doing something like this.Photo: Steven Bracco/Hoodline

Chariot, which operates commuter shuttles along fixed routes, will cease operations by the end of March, it said Thursday. Chariot’s familiar turquoise-and-white Ford Transit Wagons will stop service in San Francisco and other U.S. cities after Feb. 1. Commuter service will end in Britain, its sole international location, after Jan. 25.

The reason is simple: Chariot cannot make money.

“It has become clear that the mobility services delivered by Chariot over the past five years will not be a sustainable solution going forward,” CEO Dan Grossman wrote in a draft blog post the company provided.

The Ford Motor Co. acquired Chariot in September 2016, saying the then-2-year-old startup was key to a future of changing mobility. Ford invested heavily to expand Chariot’s operation beyond its San Francisco hometown. Chariot’s website shows that it runs services in Seattle, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Detroit, Denver, Austin, Texas, and Columbus, Ohio, as well as London.

But Ford evidently wasn’t willing to support Chariot indefinitely.

“Nobody in this country’s been able to figure out how to run transit without subsidies,” said Doug Bloch, political director with Teamsters Joint Council 7. In 2017, the Teamsters organized Chariot’s San Francisco drivers as members of its Local 665. Chariot’s 15 Seattle drivers also recently unionized with the Teamsters. “They were operating essentially on farebox recovery.”

The overwhelming majority of U.S. mass transportation providers, including Muni and BART, rely on taxpayer dollars to fill the gap between what fares generate and what it actually costs to operate the service.

Bloch said the union is negotiating with Chariot to seek severance pay for drivers. It will hold a job fair for them in San Francisco in the near future.

“The only silver lining is that people with Class B commercial licenses are in high demand right now,” he said.

Chariot had two businesses: commuter shuttles along fixed routes open to anyone, and dedicated shuttle services for private companies, including GoPro and UCSF. In recent weeks, Chariot said it would focus more heavily on corporate transportation.

Chariot operated four shuttle lines for UCSF between East Bay locations and its Mission Bay campus, said UCSF spokeswoman Elizabeth Fernandez. About 200 workers had used the service, although not all rode it every day. A grant from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission helped fund that initiative, which aimed to reduce Bay Bridge traffic. UCSF employees paid $7.50 per ride.

“We’re in the planning stages of figuring out what we can do” to replace that service, Fernandez said.

Grossman, previously Ford’s head of microtransit, quietly took over as Chariot CEO a year ago from co-founder Ali Vahabzadeh, TechCrunch reported at the time. Ford reportedly paid $65 million for Chariot, which had raised just $3 million.

“We helped Ford build their mobility business, and their experience with Chariot continues to inform their mobility efforts and design decisions for the future,” Grossman wrote in his blog post, noting that Chariot had provided more than 3 million rides.

One notable feature of Chariot was the way it asked users to vote on where they wanted to go. Last year, as part of winning a new permit for private transit operators, it agreed to not create any new routes that would directly compete with existing Muni lines.

Chariot riders expressed disappointment at news of the shutdown.

“It was very convenient and comfortable; what used to be an hour on Muni became 25 minutes on Chariot,” said Chasa Toliver-Leger, who paid $119 a month to ride Chariot from her Marina district home to her architecture firm job South of Market. “It’s too bad.”

Now she plans to investigate what replacement makes the most sense for money, convenience and time — taking two Muni lines or using Uber or Lyft.

Carolyn Said covers the on-demand economy (new marketplaces such as Uber, TaskRabbit and Airbnb that let people rent their time, goods and services), the impacts of automation and AI on labor, and the world of autonomous vehicles. Previously she covered the housing market and foreclosure crisis, winning awards for stories that shed light on the human impact of sweeping economic trends. As a business reporter at The Chronicle since 1997, she also has covered the dot-com rise and fall, the California energy crisis, the corporate malfeasance scandals, and the fallout from economic downturns.